Fish as Farmers: Reef residents tend an algal crop

A damselfish cultivates underwater gardens of an algal species that researchers haven't found growing on its own.

The special alga could be the fishy version of people's domesticated crops, says Hiroki Hata of Kyoto University in Japan. Growth tests of the alga, surveys of its distribution, and genetic analyses support that idea, he and Makoto Kato say in an upcoming Biology Letters.

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